But women get lots of other kinds of cancers, too! We don't see women getting skin or lung cancer, we see them getting what male writers/readers think is most dramatic - the "loss" of their appearance and/or femininity. Not loss of life, loss of health or the ongoing feeling of not trusting your own body, but appearance. Appearance changes can certainly be upsetting, but that's all we seem to get in this type of "friends support victim" cancer narrative. I read that in the second issue, they're going to give Firestar chemo and she'll lose her hair - that's not even the right treatment for stage 2, non-metastisised breast cancer, which really makes me think that they don't care about real people with cancer, or about raising awareness. That's what I mean by "trite" - it's following a particular, out-of-date script that has little bearing on actual women's lives and experiences. I'd love to see something realistic, but this isn't it.
Astonishing X-Men is, like Birds of Prey, a wonderful example of what I'm talking about, mixing the superhero job with the character relationships and insights - I also love the behind-the-scenes moments that you list, but "Marvel Divas" is combining female characters with stereotypical "female" concerns and nothing else. I wouldn't be particularly interested in a whole miniseries of, say, Scott working on the plane and not talking to anyone, or Logan drinking beer and watching hockey, either. A good writer can use those stereotypes as a starting point, sure, but it shouldn't be the whole story.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-08-20 08:01 am (UTC)Astonishing X-Men is, like Birds of Prey, a wonderful example of what I'm talking about, mixing the superhero job with the character relationships and insights - I also love the behind-the-scenes moments that you list, but "Marvel Divas" is combining female characters with stereotypical "female" concerns and nothing else. I wouldn't be particularly interested in a whole miniseries of, say, Scott working on the plane and not talking to anyone, or Logan drinking beer and watching hockey, either. A good writer can use those stereotypes as a starting point, sure, but it shouldn't be the whole story.